It's not often that somebody messes with one of the joys of my youth and I don't become filled with internet-rage*. Case in point, the announcement that Michael Bay was directing the new Transformers Movie. Well, last week some artist got the idea in his head that it would be interesting to re-draw the characters from the Charlie Brown comic strip as anime characters.
Needless to say, I expected myself to be filled with a justifiable desire for vengance. I mean, how could this person trifle with the Norman Rockwell of the funny pages? Granted, Charles Shultz wasn't always the funniest strip on the page, but he was consistent and his characters were immediately identifiable as all of our friends. We all had a Sally in our lives, a Linus, a Peppermint Patty, etc. Pretty much the only character I didn't have a real-life version of growing up was Franklin, but that's because I was from small-town MN and there were no black people in my town other than college students**.
Anyway, when I saw his concept art I found that actually the results were pretty interesting. The first thing that I thought was "I always thought that Linus would have less hair". And the second thing I thought was "Holy crap Lucy is *hot*!" which was kind of weird for me because she was always my least favorite character in the strip, being the one who picked on the protagonist all the time. And yet now, here she was - a total babe. It was a very weird experience for me, not unlike what I imagine Kevin Arnold experienced the first time Winnie Cooper showed up at the bus stop in her go-go boots in the Wonder Years pilot episode.
* Like regular rage, except not so upset that you're willing to go out and do anything about it.
** True fact. I didn't meet a real-life black person until I was in Junior High and we had an "exchange pastor" from Tanzania at my church for the summer.
Needless to say, I expected myself to be filled with a justifiable desire for vengance. I mean, how could this person trifle with the Norman Rockwell of the funny pages? Granted, Charles Shultz wasn't always the funniest strip on the page, but he was consistent and his characters were immediately identifiable as all of our friends. We all had a Sally in our lives, a Linus, a Peppermint Patty, etc. Pretty much the only character I didn't have a real-life version of growing up was Franklin, but that's because I was from small-town MN and there were no black people in my town other than college students**.
Anyway, when I saw his concept art I found that actually the results were pretty interesting. The first thing that I thought was "I always thought that Linus would have less hair". And the second thing I thought was "Holy crap Lucy is *hot*!" which was kind of weird for me because she was always my least favorite character in the strip, being the one who picked on the protagonist all the time. And yet now, here she was - a total babe. It was a very weird experience for me, not unlike what I imagine Kevin Arnold experienced the first time Winnie Cooper showed up at the bus stop in her go-go boots in the Wonder Years pilot episode.
* Like regular rage, except not so upset that you're willing to go out and do anything about it.
** True fact. I didn't meet a real-life black person until I was in Junior High and we had an "exchange pastor" from Tanzania at my church for the summer.
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I still miss Calvin & Hobbes.